


Cold Fire

by pallorsomnium



Series: For My Family (We Are The Resistance) [2]
Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim Fusion, Gen, M/M, Pacific Rim AU, Pre-Slash, Prosthesis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-13
Updated: 2013-07-13
Packaged: 2017-12-19 07:47:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/881267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pallorsomnium/pseuds/pallorsomnium
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Today's the day Charles will walk again, and Erik wants to be there to see it happen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cold Fire

**Author's Note:**

> A quick ficlet I wrote during work yesterday, a few hours before I saw Pacific Rim. Here we learn a tiny bit about Charles!
> 
> Un-beta'd.

Erik found Charles in the training hall he’d claimed for himself the day before. Today was the day Hank would finally let the man begin training, and Erik wanted to be there to see how Charles did on his fitness tests.

People from the Jaeger tech crew were bustling around the periphery of the hall, checking over the fitness machines and tapping away at computer screens. Charles sat in his wheelchair in the middle of the hall, Hank hovering over him with a tablet and his strange hand-held bioscanner.

Erik couldn’t help but stare; Charles wore only a grey t-shirt and navy shorts. Every other time he’d seen Charles, the man was always swaddled up in cardigans or jumpers. But now, seeing him in a t-shirt, Erik realised that Charles was actually very well-built, his chest and shoulders fairly broad and his arms well-toned.

Erik was also seeing Charles’ bionic prosthetics for just the second time. The gunmetal-grey prosthetics started mid-thigh and were constructed to look like human legs, right down to Charles’ individual toes. They were just like the type of limbs Erik would imagine on a cyborg in old sci-fi films, and he had to again marvel at Hank’s genius. Bionic prosthetics had been in the making for years, but Hank’s design was the first of its kind. He was sure once the general public found out about them, they’d be clamoring for the specs to be shared and reproduced.

“Hank, you checked them over just before we got here. I’m sure they’re fine and ready to go,” Charles was saying as Erik walked in. Then he looked up at Erik, and Erik was momentarily stunned yet again by the warmth of his smile. “Good morning, Erik. Have you come to watch my fitness tests?”

Erik nodded. “It seems you’ve been keeping in shape,” he remarked. “I’m sure it won’t be too difficult for you.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that,” he replied with a grimace. “The running test might be a challenge. I’ve tested these before,” he gestured to his prosthetics, “but it always takes a bit for my body to realise I can walk again. It’s been nearly ten years, after all.”

“But now you will _walk_ again,” Erik pointed out, to which Charles beamed.

“Yes, and what more, I can finally _fight_.”

With those words, Charles’ eyes turned steely, and his face smoothed into near blankness. This was a side of Charles, all cold fire and determination, Erik had only seen once before, when he’d explained, in words stripped bare of emotions, how he’d lost the use of his legs. That cold fire, hidden so well behind the veneer of a proper English gentleman, was what caused the man to give up ten years of research to study Kaiju; to have his own legs cut off to undergo a highly experimental prosthetics procedure; and to agree immediately to become a Jaeger pilot.

Upon seeing this side of Charles, Erik had known immediately that they would be perfect partners for each other, sending a rush of adrenaline pumping through his body. Now, he grinned, baring his teeth in a rare smile. He couldn’t wait for them to begin, together.

 


End file.
